Carla Cornelio, left, and her mother, Alba Cornelio, at their 2011 arraignment in San Diego Superior Court after their two pit bulls attacked and mauled their neighbor, Emako Mendoza, 75, on June 18, 2011. — John R. McCutchen

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Carla Cornelio, left, and her mother, Alba Cornelio, at their 2011 arraignment in San Diego Superior Court after their two pit bulls attacked and mauled their neighbor, Emako Mendoza, 75, on June 18, 2011.
— John R. McCutchen

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Emako Mendoza, who had been in and out of hospitals and rehabilitation centers since the dogs attacked her on June 18, was taken to an emergency room Friday.

Her husband, James Mendoza, said his wife was having trouble breathing and doctors told him her kidneys were shutting down. She died Saturday about 8:30 a.m.

“We were always together everywhere,” he said of his wife of 54 years. “We really looked after each other real good.”

Since the dog attack, Emako Mendoza had undergone eight surgeries to repair the damage to her body, including amputations of her left leg below the knee and left arm below the elbow.

Most recently, an orthopedic surgeon had tried to try to save Mendoza’s right leg, her 78-year-old husband said, but the injuries were too extensive. The leg was amputated a few weeks ago.

“It was too much,” he said.

He met his wife in Japan in 1954 while serving in the Navy. They had lived in their San Diego home more than 40 years, and had a son and four grandchildren.

County animal control officers arrested the Mendozas’ neighbors — Alba Cornelio, 39, and her daughter, Carla Cornelio, 20 — about a week and a half after the mauling. They pleaded not guilty in San Diego Superior Court to felony and misdemeanor charges related to owning dogs that caused great bodily injury and failing to protect the public from the animals.

It is not yet known whether they will face new charges as a result of Mendoza’s death.

“We will now review the case for potential additional charges,” said Steve Walker, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office.

Makenzie Harvey, the prosecutor handling the case, is out of the office this week and was not immediately available for comment.

According to testimony from a September court hearing, the dogs injured another neighbor on Alleghany Street and his poodle, Fluffy, during an encounter in December 2010. Then, in June, the animals pushed through a gap between two fences that separated the Cornelio property from the Mendoza home.

James Mendoza testified he was awakened that morning by Alba and Carla Cornelio, who rang his doorbell to alert him that the dogs were on his property. He found his wife in the yard, where she had gone to retrieve the newspaper.

He testified that her limbs were “hanging by threads.”

Defense lawyer Donovan Dunnion argued at the hearing that the dogs may have been agitated by a beehive found in the Cornelio family’s yard, causing the animals to become aggressive.

The dogs, along with 11 puppies born to one of the animals, were euthanized with Alba Cornelio’s permission at the time of the incident.